What is the Sex Offender List?

The North Carolina Sex Offender Registration has been enacted by the NC General Assembly and exists through the Police Power of the Constitution that is delegated to each State. Under § 14-208.6A, the North Carolina General Assembly has created two programs for Criminal Sex offenders, which requires each individual to register with local law enforcement in an effort to monitor and track each individual who is convicted of a qualifying act. The first program is named the Sex Offender and Public Protection Program and the second being the Sexually Violent Predator Registration Program.

This information is made available to the general public, foreign states, and the federal government, and may be used by third parties such as watchdog.com. If you or someone you know is being charged with a crime that may lead to their registration on the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry, it is imperative that you contact a private Criminal Attorney with experience in these issues. Being placed on this list not only can, but will tarnish an individuals life, by making their whereabouts and profile public information. Sheehan today to speak to a Criminal Defense Attorney.

The registry is county-based, with a statewide layer on top

In North Carolina there is no single office that takes registrations. G.S. 14-208.7(a) requires a State resident with a reportable conviction to “maintain registration with the sheriff of the county where the person resides”. For someone living in Charlotte that is the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office. G.S. 14-208.7(a1) extends the same duty to a nonresident student or nonresident worker, who registers with the sheriff of the county where the person works or attends school.

The county registrations feed a statewide registry maintained by the Department of Public Safety. G.S. 14-208.15 requires the Department to “provide free public access to automated data from the statewide registry, including photographs provided by the registering sheriffs, via the Internet”. The information that is public in the statewide registry is the same information that G.S. 14-208.10 makes public at county level.

What the public can actually obtain

G.S. 14-208.10(a) identifies the registration information that is public record, and the list is shorter than most people assume: name, sex, address, physical description, picture, conviction date, the offense for which registration was required, the sentence imposed as a result of the conviction, and registration status. A member of the public may obtain that information by written request to the sheriff, who may charge reasonable duplication and mailing costs.

Two categories are excluded. Medical and mental health records obtained under G.S. 14-208.22 are not part of the public record. And the section provides that the identity of the victim of the offense that required registration shall not be released. The sheriff retains discretion to release other information relevant to public safety while preserving that confidentiality.

The registration form is broader than the public record

The information a registrant hands over is not the same as the information a member of the public can obtain, and the two are frequently confused. The form collected under G.S. 14-208.7(b) goes well beyond the public-record subset in G.S. 14-208.10, and includes the following:

Full name and each alias, date of birth, sex, race, height, weight, eye color, hair color
Driver license number and home address — the license number is collected on the form but is not part of the public record under G.S. 14-208.10, whereas the address is expressly public record under that section
The name used at the time of conviction, any alias used then, and the name as it appears on the sentencing judgment
The type of offense for which the person was convicted, the date of conviction and the sentence imposed
A current photograph and the person’s fingerprints, both taken by the sheriff without charge — the picture is public record under G.S. 14-208.10 and is published online under G.S. 14-208.15, but the fingerprints are not
A statement about student status or plans to enroll at an institution of higher education, and about employment or expected employment at such an institution
Any online identifier that the person uses or intends to use

Juvenile registrations are not on the public list

In North Carolina, a juvenile adjudicated delinquent who is ordered to register under Part 4 of Article 27A is registered on entirely different terms. G.S. 14-208.29 provides that “the information regarding a juvenile required to register under this Part is not public record and is not available for public inspection”.

That information is maintained separately by the sheriff and released only to law enforcement agencies and to local boards of education. It is not placed in the county registry or the statewide registry, and it does not appear on the public internet site. A juvenile registration also ends automatically under G.S. 14-208.30, on the juvenile’s eighteenth birthday or when juvenile court jurisdiction over the juvenile ends, whichever occurs first.

The two programs are separate, and the difference is duration

G.S. 14-208.6A creates the Sex Offender and Public Protection Registration Program and the Sexually Violent Predator Registration Program. A person with a reportable conviction registers under the first. A recidivist, a person convicted of an aggravated offense, and a person the court classifies as a sexually violent predator register under the second.

The practical difference is not the form filled in at the sheriff’s office; it is what follows. Registration under the first program is maintained for at least 30 years under G.S. 14-208.7(a) and may be shortened by petition after ten years under G.S. 14-208.12A, where the decision rests with the superior court. Registration under the second is for life under G.S. 14-208.23, and verification occurs every 90 days under G.S. 14-208.24 rather than twice a year.

Being on the registry creates criminal exposure of its own

In North Carolina, the registry carries a set of continuing duties and a set of prohibitions, each enforced by its own felony. Under G.S. 14-208.11, a person required to register who wilfully fails to register, fails to notify the last registering sheriff of a change of address, fails to return a verification notice, forges or submits information under false pretences, fails to report in person as required, or fails to report new or changed online identifiers is guilty of a Class F felony. Wilfulness is an element of each.

The prohibitions sit in Part 4. G.S. 14-208.16 makes it a Class G felony for a registrant knowingly to reside within 1,000 feet of any property line of a property on which a public or nonpublic school or child care center is located, subject to an exception for a registrant who established residence there before 16 August 2006. G.S. 14-208.17 makes it a Class F felony to work, with or without compensation, at any place where a minor is present and the person’s responsibilities would include the instruction, supervision or care of minors. G.S. 14-208.18 makes it a Class H felony to be knowingly on the premises of places intended primarily for the use, care or supervision of minors, within 300 feet of such a location on other premises, or at places where minors frequently congregate — but subsection (c) limits that section to defined categories of registrant rather than applying it to everyone on the list.

Third-party sites are not the registry

Because North Carolina publishes registry data over the internet under G.S. 14-208.15, that data is copied and republished by commercial sites, mapping services and notification applications that the State does not operate and does not control. Those sites are frequently out of date and are not subject to the statutory limits that govern the sheriff and the Department of Public Safety.

The statutory record is the one maintained by the registering sheriff and the Department. Where a registration ends — because a petition under G.S. 14-208.12A is granted, because a juvenile registration terminates under G.S. 14-208.30, or because a conviction is reversed, vacated or set aside under G.S. 14-208.6C — the change is made to the official record, and the persistence of a stale third-party listing is a separate practical problem.

Common questions

Who maintains the sex offender registry in North Carolina?

Registration is taken by the sheriff of the county where the person resides under G.S. 14-208.7(a), which in Charlotte is the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office. The Department of Public Safety maintains the statewide registry and, under G.S. 14-208.15, provides free public access to automated data from it over the internet, including photographs supplied by the registering sheriffs. Nonresident students and nonresident workers register with the sheriff of the county where they attend school or work.

What information from the North Carolina registry is public?

G.S. 14-208.10 makes the registrant’s name, sex, address, physical description, picture, conviction date, the offense requiring registration, the sentence imposed and registration status public record. Other information collected on the registration form under G.S. 14-208.7(b), such as the driver license number and fingerprints, is not part of that public subset. Medical and mental health records obtained under G.S. 14-208.22 are excluded, and the identity of the victim shall not be released.

Are juveniles listed on the public North Carolina sex offender registry?

No. G.S. 14-208.29 provides that information about a juvenile required to register is not public record and is not available for public inspection. It is maintained separately by the sheriff and released only to law enforcement agencies and local boards of education, and it is not included in the county or statewide registries or on the public internet site. Juvenile registration also terminates automatically under G.S. 14-208.30.

What are the two North Carolina registration programs?

G.S. 14-208.6A creates the Sex Offender and Public Protection Registration Program and the Sexually Violent Predator Registration Program. Persons with reportable convictions register under the first. Recidivists, persons convicted of an aggravated offense and persons classified as sexually violent predators register under the second, which carries lifetime registration under G.S. 14-208.23 and verification every 90 days under G.S. 14-208.24.

Written for North Carolina law and reviewed by David P. Sheehan, attorney, Charlotte. General information, not legal advice — see the disclaimer.